My Other Half
by GreyXDove
Summary: Naruto is older and is more serious of becoming known to the world and not to be forgotten as a foxboy. Gaara is in search of his other half because of being haunted by these stranges phenomenons. What happens when the two paths colide? Light yaoi later.C
1. Changes?

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Naruto

**Chapter one: **Changed?

It is the night; the full moon lighting the sky of shadows as much as it can along with its star children. The time of night when sleep falls upon most Humans. But there is this one. You see, this one cannot fall upon slumber, he is not allowed to. For if he had done so, the demonic being inside him awakens. It is a demon of his village, the Hidden Village of Sand. The demon contained in this one is the reason why he is alone, why he suffers, why he is unfamiliar with the feeling of love. Because of this demon he holds inside his body, the village hated him, feared him, and avoided him. So all this one does during the night is stare at the white, shadowed wall with his dark circled eyes, wondering what love is, and why the symbol 'love' is on his forehead. This one gave up on trying to find friends or family. He was truly alone, so he shows no emotion to anyone. He accepted the sand that which protected him from any harm.

This one is called, Gaara of the Sand

In another village called Konoha, also known as Hidden Village of Leaf, there is another whom is not under deep slumber as the rest of the village is, all in a dream world of non-existence. You see, this one trains during the night, under the full white moon above him. Although, this one is not forced to stay awaken. He chooses to stay awake. Why you may ask? His reason to force himself is so he may be noticed by the villagers and embraced with happiness. For the villagers hated him; they ignored him; they shared no love for him. What reason did they have to hate him for? He did nothing to them. Yes, that statement is true. They only saw this one as a monster, because he too held a demon with in. The demon was known as the Nine Tails. A terrible demon of Konoha that terrorized the village before this one was even born. Then, the fourth Hokage of the village used a forbidden technique to seal the demon in a child. _This one_ was the child. So all the villagers only saw the demon and not the boy who was burdened by this. He did not know the true feeling of love. But he fights to find the answer to his questions.

This one is called, Uzumaki Naruto.

**---------------**

It is another morning, Naruto awakens from his oh so very short moment of sleep. He remembers that he promised himself he was going to train until he became a Hokage. But, in this morning he finally decided to quit that idea because he would die of over training Himself. Slowly, He sits up from the bed he laid in. Then, a sigh comes out his mouth.

_It's going to be another waste of a day in my life. Woo. _He thinks.

He gets out of bed and starts to get ready for the day. Filling the teapot with what water he had and letting it boil as he got dressed, he notices something was different. His clothing were tight and they didn't fit him well as well as they did before. He was confused and shocked as he tugged on the articles of clothing on his body to fit. Giving up he walks towards the mirror in his room to see.

_Oh... My... God..._

Naruto sets his eyes on a stranger in the mirror before him. He sees a teenage boy with his color hair only that the hair was much longer. The pants he wore were so tight for the stranger that the pants were practically made to fit him like a second layer of skin. He did not put his shirt on, and the image in the mirror wasn't wearing one either. The strange teen had a fit and perfect body with no scars. Naruto did not understand who it was until he laid his eyes upon the stomach. The seal. It was right there on the image stomach. He realizes that the image was not some other boy but himself.

_When did this happen? I was training for only a year and this happens? How can this be? I'm only fift-. _He remembers what day it was. It was the day of his birth, the day he curses because that was the day when he became a container for a demon fox.

He hears a whistle. Turning his head, he sees the cause of the sound. He takes the skin hugging pants off and walks to the stove to turn it off, takes the teapot off and puts it on the only table in the room. Then he searches through his unorganized closet for the pants he had never worn because they were too big for him before. Once he finds them he stands up and looks at them. The pants were a darkish, green color and looked kind of cool on him. He slips them on and sees that they fit, although they were quite baggy, he finds a belt to hold them to his waist. He has no choice but to wear them because he could wear nothing else.

Deciding to find a shirt later, he goes to the only chair and table in the whole room and sits. He grabs an instant ramen bowl and opens it, then pours the steaming, hot water in it and waits.

_My birth should have never even existed_. He stares at the ramen bowl as it cooks with his intense eyes. _Because I was born, they chose this body of mine to be a prison for the demon. But why did it have to be me? A boy who has no mother, no father, or any siblings was probably the most reasonable choice I guess. No one would care if I were to get hurt, or get sick, or even die. Heh...yeah, they made the perfect choice. _

He opens the lid "Itagekimasu" he says with a voice he doesn't recognize..._Is that _my _voice? _He tries to ignore his new appearance and starts eating the ramen.

------------------------------------------

Gaara, still sitting and staring at the wall, blinks and starts rise from his place on the floor.

_I've been in this room for three months trying to figure out what love is and why I don't understand it, and all I got from this was an empty stomach and a lot of techniques practiced on flies and mice. I got nothing out of this so there is no point in doing anymore of this non-sense. _

He walks out of the room he was given since the day he was born. The small whole in the roof poured the beam of light he was waiting for. He goes to the kitchen and gets an apple to fill a very small portion of his empty stomach.

"Ga-Gaara-Sama... You've come out." A very frightened ninja appears and spoke in a shaky voice as he stops abruptedly. "Did you find what you needed?"

"No." Gaara responds in his voice of no emotion. He continues walking down the hall until he reaches outside.

_People have been getting much more frightened of me as I become older. I am taller and stronger then I was when I went to the Chunnin exams. They fear me, I hate it. I wanted them to all disappear, until that one day. The day I met... Uzumaki Naruto. And I thought Uchiha Susuke was like me. Uzumaki is the same as I. He holds a demon of his own inside him, like I, and he was alone, like I. But then he told me that he found friends, he was accepted. How did he leave the sea of pain we were both in, how?_

Gaara looks around at the half barren village. Since it was still early morning, not many people were out yet. So he decides to take a walk. It is a little chilly, but the sun, rising slowly, gave little warmth from its golden rays, shining over the horizon. He walks to the valley where children usually were during the evening and night.

Seeing that no one was around, Gaara looks for the ball he hid in a large barrel before he started the useless meditation/confinement in his room. He takes out the ball and drops it on the ground and lets it settle as he closes the top of the barrel. As he made sure no other person was watching him, he sees a small rat watch him. _A small rat... At least he isn't a person._

Now that he was sure no one was looking; he starts maneuvering the ball with his foot to go right in front of him._ Children like to play with this ball by kicking it around to each other or towards the valley wall so it may return to their way. Passing it back and forth. They find it amusing?_

He starts to kick the ball in short distance with little enthusiasm. Moving it this way and that way. But with each kick, he found it amusing how he was in control of the ball. Which direction, how far, to dribble it; he discovered how it was fun to play with it. And then he realizes, he was smiling and giving small giggles.

He stops automatically. Standing very still, he felt shocked. His hand went up to his lips to feel the place where he had smiled. "I...I...smiled...I smiled..." As the words past his lips into the air, he feels a tears swell and fall down his cheek.


	2. Dark Past, New Beginning

Author: Che Heh

Chapter 2:

"What am I going to do?" Says Naruto as he continues his search for a shirt that would not be as tight as his pants were. He picks up the biggest shirt he could find in the piled mess "Great, all I have is this black t-shirt that's also tight..." he looks to the other shirts that were even smaller than the one he was holding. "Oh well. It's the only one left. I guess I have to go shopping...Meaning... I have to reveal my new self to the village. I wonder how they're going to react."

As he slowly puts on the tight shirt, he goes through different scenes through his mind of how everyone in the village would react and frankly, each and every one of those scenes had no good side. He tried to ignore the thoughts and get them out of his head. He walks to the door and puts his shoes on. But as Naruto was about to open the door, stops his hand as it reached for the knob.

_Can I do this? Can I face the world with another day of rejection? What if they hate the new me even more? _He takes a step back._ The hair upon my head is longer than I am used to, for it's up to my neck. My body is scrawny because I hadn't had much to eat. I look more like a girl then a boy. Maybe I should use the sexy-technique... On second thoughts... maybe not. _

As his tension ran out of his body, Naruto recovers as much courage he could find in himself and opens the door of his small apartment with his fingers trembling as he turned the brass knob. _Well world, I'm taking this my last chance to be noticed. So..... WATCH OUT!!. _He swings the door open and lets a bright light enter the dark room his eyes were accustomed to.

-------------------------

As he walks through the village as if nothing had happened in the valley, many stares were upon him and he already knew why all their gazes were fixed on him. They were afraid. All of them. Now why was that? Ah. The most reasonable explanation is probably because he had confined himself for three months. Gaara keeps walking down the street, staring at all the children playing together and laughing together.

_If... if I didn't have this monster inside me then... I would have been like them. I could have been loved and cherished by friends and by family. All because of this... thing. All because of it, I am truly alone. _

He reaches his 'home' and walks into the darkness as the sun rose higher. But suddenly, he feels extremely cold fingers gently touch the back of his neck. Fear runs up his body.

Gaara turns his body expecting to see some strong person, but there was no one there in his sight range. He quickly runs deeper into the dark empty hallway. _What was that? _He looks around more, only to find disappointment of not finding what he was looking for. "_Gaara.... _" A familiar voice changed to sound more frightening echoed in the dark halls.

"Ya...Ya...Yashamaru?" Gaara trembles as he whispers the name. The memories of Yashamaru rush through his mind, every single one of them bringing him pain.

Flashback

---------------------------------------

Gaara-age (I think he was 5 or 6)

Gaara is in the room he was given and feels sad after the incident at the valley grounds. _Mother? Did I do something to scare the other children away? _He thinks as he stares at the only picture he had of her. He picks a knife up and holds its sharp end downward, letting it glisten under the artificial light in the room. As he lowered the knife to stab his hand, sand stops the small blade from going any further then an inch from his untouchable skin. "It's no use... The sand interferes." He says as a sad expression comes over the small boy.

"Gaara-sama"

"Ya...Yashamaru!" Gaara says in shock with his small weak voice.

Yashamaru walks over to the small, young boy. "I was ordered by Kaze-kage-sama to be your caretaker." He tilts his head and puts a weak smile on his face. "Please don't do such a think in front of me."

Gaara looks down with a cheerless face upon it.

"Hehe. But then again the sand will protect you." He says as he rubs the back of his head.

"Yashamaru, I'm sorry." Gaara says with the same expression that never goes away.

"Huh? Oh. This." He says with a crack of a smile as he looks at his arm and touches his forehead lightly, remembering what had happened at the children's valley. "It's only a scratch."

Gaara looks up at him with a combination of curiosity and sadness. "Do wounds... itaii?

"Just a little. It will heal quickly, though." Still with a small smile.

"Hey, Yashamaru?"

"Yes?"

"What does pain feel like?" Yashamaru stares at Gaara with a solemn face. "I've never been hurt before, so I was wondering how it felt..."

"Hmm...How should I explain this...?" His eyes wonder as he tries to think of an explanation understandable to a child. "It's painful and unbearable... like when a person is shot or cut, he becomes very ill at ease and he can't think normally. Haha, I can't explain it very well, but to simply put it, it's not a very good condition to be in." He rubs the back of his head again in embarrassment.

Gaara stares attentively at the covered wound on Yashamaru's arm. Then his eyes start to water. "Yashamaru."

"Hai?"

"Then, do you hate me, Yashamaru?" He says, trying to look like as if he didn't care, but does not succeed. Yashamaru gazes at Gaara's gloomy, down casted eyes with his own in shock of what he had just heard out of the little boy in front of him.

"People hurt each other and get hurt during their lifetimes. Demo it is difficult to hate another."

Gaara's eyes brighten up as a smile grows upon his face. "Arigato, Yashamaru! I think I understand what itaii is, now."

"Really?"

"Maybe I'm injured, too, like everyone else. I'm always hurt here..." He guides his hand to his chest where his heart beats. "I'm not bleeding, demo my chest hurts here."

Yashamaru stares at him again with a solemn face mixed with sadness. He walks toward Gaara and then levels his body so that he was the same height as him. He takes the knife from the small boy and stares at it for a bit until he pressed the cold, sharp steel against his own finger without a flinch.

Gaara immediately gasps in shock of what Yashamaru had just done to himself before his eyes. He stares at the blood trickling down unto the floor.

"Flesh wounds bleed, and they may seem painful...demo... as time goes by, the pain eases and eventually will disappear. And if you use medicine the wound will heal even faster. But the tricky wounds are the ones in your heart. Those are difficult to heal."

Gaara, still within deep shock, looks up from the petite wound on Yashamaru's finger. "A wound of the heart?"

"A wound of the heart is different from a flesh wound. Unlike a flesh wound, there is no ointments to heal it and, and there are times when they never heal." Yashamaru explains.

Gaara again has his hand reach and touch the part of his chest where his heart lies. His eyes avoid Yashamaru's with great sadness.

Yashamaru continues "Demo; there is one thing that can heal a wound of the heart." Gaara's attention was caught. "It's a troublesome medicine and only you can receive it from another person."

"Nanni? How can I heal this...?" Gaara asks with great interest.

Yashamaru cracks yet another smile and replies as he stares at his late twin sister, Gaara's mother. "The thing that can heal this wound of the heart ... Is Ai chyodesu..."

"Ai Chyo?"

"Hai."

"H-How can I get that? What should I do to get rid of this pain?"

"Gaara-sama, you have already received it."

-----------------------

End of Flashback

The end of the flashback came as the pain slowly left his head. Gasping for air, Gaara notices he is sitting against the wall he had bumped into earlier. _The sand did not raze to protect me from that hand. Why? Unless. NO. It couldn't be a ghost. Could it? _

Remembering the lost voice he had heard just a moment ago, he feels a chill crawl down his spine. _Was that really Yashamaru? But he's dead... isn't he?_

"_Ai Chyo_..." The voice whispered.

_Love? _Gaara's eyes, more awaken than before, looks down both ways of the hall with fear growing in him

"Who's there?" He yells. NO answer comes to his question. "What do you want?" He yells another question. This time a respond occurred.

"_You are not alone... you need to find your other half... then you shall be whole and find true happiness..."_The voice was loud and clear, it had an echo follow the sound as it traveled through the hallways.

After a minute or so, no sound came to be through the halls. Its silence made Gaara fear grow rapidly.

"Yashamaru? Yashamaru?! ONE GAI! Don't leave me again! YASHAMARU!" Gaara yells with great grief and fear in the trembling voice as tears yet again fill his eyes, only this time of fear and sadness. He sat there crying, knowing no one would hear, he still cried out for his late caretaker.

"Yashamaru...Dooshite?" He manages to speak with his unstable voice as he still sat against the wall crying. "And what do you mean by 'My other half'?" Still sitting, unable to stand up, He looks up into the deeply shadowed ceiling as the tears roll out of his dark circled eyes and down his pale cheek.

----------------------------------

As he had expected, many of the villagers gave him stares as he entered the market place. Yet, they weren't the stares he had anticipated. Instead of the hateful eyes he was used to, the stares were of two, curiosity by the men and flirty eyes by women with open, smiling mouths.

_What? Do I look like a ramen bowl or something?_

He kept walking until he finally reaches he destination, the clothing store. As he steps in, the women in the store all gasp and start whispering to each other while still staring at him with blushes all over their faces. Ignoring them he quickly walks toward the men's side of the stare and looks through the clothing. _I knew I should have tried to find a larger shirt._ He thought as he pulled the unyielding shirt down as it slowly rises every so and so.

A women near by comes over to Naruto shyly. "Ohayoo Gozaimasu. May I help you with anything in particular? A shirt? Pants? Underwear? A girlfriends outfit?" She blushes and turns even more red then blood.

"Oh, uh... I just need some shirts and some pants." He rubs the back of his neck with his hands. "Sorry I don't have a girlfriend."

Once he said that the girl turned to the other women who worked at the store and whispered some words he could not hear. But he did not have hear for he already knew what she had told them by the way all of them rushed their way towards him.

"Hey cutie!"

"Are you from Konoha?"

"What brings you to our small village?"

"How come I haven't seen you around here honey?"

"What's your name?"

The women were practically hugging him. Naruto blushes like crazy and becomes a bit embarrassed. "Umm... you don't recognize me? It's me. Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." All the women froze in place of what they were doing and had faces of extreme surprise. Then the one girl that came to him first laughs. "AHAHAHAHA! Your such a funny guy! I guess you already know about the fox kid?" All the other girls joined her in laughing.

"Well... Hajimemashite to you too." Naruto says with a little sarcasm. "So I guess I'm a 'Fox Kid Hottie' now?"

All the women stopped laughing and gawked at him with stares of astonishment. No sound came... until...

"EEEEHHHIII?!?!?!?!?" They all shriek at the top of their lungs. _What did I do_?

I'll update soon.


	3. Theres Sadness in Happiness

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto but I do own the extra characters that I added in here.

**Chapter 3:**

"Uhhh I got to go ladies... thanks for helping me OUT Hey watch what you're touching there!" Naruto yelps as he tries to pry himself from the girls inspecting his body in _all _places. "If you'd excuse me I have to go see some one."

"Naruto-Chan! Stay for a little while longer!" one of the girls called.

"Umm... Maybe later." With those as his last words to them he quickly strides off._ Are they for real? Why didn't they do that before? This body is gonna be hard to get used to. I'm making girl perverts now. _

With the clothes neatly folded in one bag, he sets off to go see the 5th Hokage. _I Hope SHE can explain._

In the dark room of his past, Gaara sits and stares at the photo of his mother, hugging his knees. "My eyes have become dry now mother. But why did I cry as I did when I was a mere child? I felt the same loneliness from then when I killed my first. Yashamaru." He stands up slowly as if in a dream and goes towards his sand gourd, feeling the rough sand-like touch under his pale soft hand.

"Mother." He breaks the long silence with the single word passing his lips. "I have made much thought on this. I have decided to go in search for this other half of mine." He straps the gourd on and walks back to the only photo of his birth mother he had and picks it up. "Guide me mother. Even if you didn't love me, I will search for it. For the love that I was destined to have like all others have for them selves. Like I felt with Yashamaru." With those words spoken, he takes the photo out of the frame and lets the sand image of a hand take it from his own to retreat into the gourd.

Gaara walks to the outside the hut of a building and heads for the village gates. Unlike the morning, the village was more alive and had other people around. Though many retreated to the closest building with fearful eyes and clumsy runs, very few remained outside. Not by courage and bravery but because of the work needed to be done around the village. Scouring for food was one.

As he passes by through the village, he also sees people in rags and sitting on mats, scrunching up to hide themselves from an unprotected blow as he passes them one by one. _This is what I wanted for all the world because of the way they treated those that are not like them. But when I look at the way they all are I can't help but feel sympathy for them. Why?_

He stops in front of a little girl in her mother's lap. She seemed to wear only rags, same as her mother. The mother crossed her arms in front of her little one "Please! Gaara-Sama! Don't hurt us!" She tucks her head and tries to back up as if she were able to go through walls like there was nothing there. The little girl somehow got out of her mothers bind and walks up to Gaara as if he were a friend from the past.

"Naroshi!" The woman screeches frightfully as she sees her daughter not in her lap but standing right in front of Gaara. "Naroshi! No! Gaara-Sama! Onegai! She's my only family! Do not hurt her! Onegai! She started crying as if it was the end of the world and she was losing everthing. "…Onegai…Onegai…Onegai…" She rocked back and forth hugging herself, crying, and mumbling the same word over and over. Her face literally touching the ground as she bows to him for mercy.

Naroshi, the little girl, looks up at Gaara like a mouse to a lion, not with eyes full of fright but full of curiosity. "Hmmm... why's you eyes bwack? Did you get intwo a fight? "Still no signs of fear in the two small, beady eyes.

"Huh? Oh..." Still in shock of her just walking up to him with eyes of curiosity and not of fear, he feels a sudden urge to show her why they were so black. No reason known to himself until he. He kneels on one knee so that he may be ever more closer to her face so she didn't break her neck. "Uh... you see... Naroshi...San...Kun...Chan..." He's never talked to children younger then himself before so he wasn't sure what to call them.

She giggles as he studders. "To you, I'm Nawoshi Chaan."

"Oh... r-right. Well. You see Naroshi Chan, I'm a ninja so I always get into fights. But my eyes aren't black because I got hit because the sand protects me because I have something that everyone is afraid of... umm... did you understand that?" As he was chattering he noticed that she replaced the curiosity with confusion and glee mixed together.

"Gaawa-sama. You tawk two fast." a smile appear upon her face as she giggles. Without hesitation her hands slowly reach for his face to touch the dark, blackened skin circled around his weak eyes.

Wait!" Gaara yelps as he closes his eyes shut tight. _Please don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her. _He repeatedly says in his mind.

His sand starts to rise like the dead to life. _Please don't hurt her! Please don't hurt her!_

The wind makes the healthy, green leaves unsettle in the trees; the new and the old. The fish are calmly swimming in the crystal clear waters of the village of Konoha. _Ah I missed I've been gone way to long. _

Naruto didn't leave Konoha's land. No, no. Of course not. He, after all, is loyal to the village that he lived in. But...

Suddenly, Naruto stops right where he was on the dirt road as he recognizes a small playground. The same playground where he made his first friend. Or at least he thougtht he had.

Flashback Naruto (Age of about 5)

"Wee!"

"Haha!"

"Yay!"

"Woo!"

A playground fit for very young children was being occupied such little ones. Having fun as they should, going down the slides, swinging on the monkey bars, and running around playing a game. But there was one little child that was just sitting on a bench, not far from the play set. This little one was shy and didn't know what to do. He wanted to join in with the fun but was afraid.

One of the children noticed that he was there, sitting on the bench all by himself, hugging what appeared to be a stuffed animal. The child was curious and so he left the fun and joy of the slides and monkey bars to fill his curiosity with answers of just who this boy was and why was he sitting all by himself. As he got closer and closer he saw that the lonely boy had blonde hair and was wearing clothing that were quite loose on him, exposing his left shoulder. Once the boy stands right in front of this interesting blonde headed one, a wide smile appears on his face. "Konichiwa! I'm Kimashi. Chigosu Kimashi. What's your name?" The smile still upon his face he waits for a reply from him.

The shy one heard the other child speak and so he looks up to see the one who spoke these words. His bright, big, blue eyes see the brown ones staring at him. "M... Me?" He sees a boy who was about his age whom stopped enjoying the excitement of the playground just to talk to him.

Kimashi giggles "Yes you. What's your name?" His face finds fun in this conversation somehow.

"I-I-I'm... Naruto... Uzumaki Naruto." He says with a small weak voice.

"What?" Kimashi giggles more as he cups his ear and has it facing Naruto. "I couldn't hear you. haha. You too quiet!" He says with a childlike sarcasm.

"I-I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto Says with a little more power. Realizing how loud he had gotten, he cups his mouth with his hands.

"Ha Ha! That's it! If you want others to know your here you have to be LOUD! Ha Ha!"

The stuffed animal that he was hugging falls to the floor. "oh!"

Kimashi picks the plaything up and examines it. "Hmmm... I think it's time you had real friends like... Me! "He puts the stuffed animal next to Naruto and sees that he was staring at it. Again, the energetic child giggles with overwhelming glee in meeting this new child. He grabs Naruto's hand and gets him on his feet. "Come on! Ha Ha! Let's go play with the other kids!"

"B-B-But what if they don't like me?" Naruto says as he runs with Kimashi towards the playground.

"Don't worry!" Kimashi looks back at Naruto with his wide, brown eyes. "I'm your friend!" Kimashi produces another wide smile.

_I... I ... I have... a friend... I have a fiend... _"I have a friend!" Naruto starts to laugh with Kimashi as the reach the playground. The little boy with blonde hair realizes for the first time friendship was a great thing to have.

End of flashback.

A tiny grin appears upon his face, yet the eyes were still serious and looked as if tears were to fall soon. "If only it stayed that way..."


End file.
